Dimensions of corruption in Pakistan: A systems thinking approach and qualitative analysis

Abstract

Over the past few decades, many studies of corruption have been carried out. These studies have mainly focused on specific aspects of corruption such as economic issues, legal issues, social propositions, national development and economic policy. This study builds a systems thinking model of corruption, which helps in the understanding of corruption and acts as an input into future policymaking on corruption. Data for the qualitative analysis come from 198 interviews (including 43 in‐depth interviews) conducted in Pakistan. The main contribution of the study is the increased understanding and insights about issues of values, social aspects, inflation, government size and political norms when considering perceptions of corruption in Pakistan. Some of our key findings, such as the effect of inflation, government size, transparency in international negotiations and the juxtaposition of religious values with corruption, have not been widely discussed in the literature.

Corruption in the health sector: A problem in need of a systems-thinking approach

“…Systems thinking has been previously applied to understand corruption in LMICs outside of the health sector ( 78 , 79 ). These previously employed strategies can be combined with a health system strengthening framework put forth by de Savigny et al ( 80 ) to better understand and disrupt health sector corruption.…”

“…The goal of the causal loop diagram is to visually represent the complex relationships between variables within the system that contribute to corruption ( 81 ). This approach was used in in Pakistan where Ullah et al ( 79 ) conducted a thorough qualitative analysis focusing on citizens' experience with, perceptions of, and strategies for combatting corruption. Based on the themes extracted from this analysis, they created a comprehensive causal loop diagram modeling corruption in Pakistan that was inclusive of social, economic, legal, and political relationships.…”

Archetypal representations of dilemmas concerning invasive alien species management—A case of invasive Lantana camara in the protected areas of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India

“…The respondents were contacted through purposive sampling. The authors conducted interviews for dual purposes (i) to identify themes related to Lantana management and (ii) to identify variables that influence or are influenced by Lantana management (Pineo et al, 2020; Ullah et al, 2021). Themes were developed using the thematic analysis processes prescribed by Braun and Clarke (2006).…”

“…In this stage, the researcher developed a preliminary causal loop diagram based on the analysis and synthesis of the transcribed interviews, major themes identified through the thematic process, and the scientific literature (Pineo et al, 2020; Ullah et al, 2021). The relationship between pairs of variables is identified from the existing literature.…”